Examining the NHL’s teen-age presence, McLellan’s take as a father and a coach — plus more as Sharks prepare for Buffalo

SAN JOSE — Took a little longer than usual to knock out print edition story that uses the presence of the Buffalo Sabres in town to examine the impact 21 teen-age NHL players are having across the NHL.

The Sabres have four teen-agers on their roster, and that’s a sizable presence even if none has the cache of a Tomas Hertl or a Nathan Mackinnon.

(No NHL team since the 1995-96 season has dressed four teen-agers over the course of an entire season, let alone all in the first month.)

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The good folks at the Elias Sports Bureau checked and not since 2010 have this many teen-agers played in the first month of an NHL season. Granted, that’s not too long ago, but it’s also the impact the younger players are having, Tomas Hertl in San Jose, Nathan Mackinnon in Colorado, Sean Monahan in Calgary, Aleksander Barkov in Florida and Seth Jones in Nashville, just to name a few.

Dave Taylor, former GM in LA and now veep for hockey operations in St. Louis, suggested it was a combination of high-end talent in the 2013 draft and the drop in the salary cap from $70 million to $64.3 million that accounts for all those teen-agers who, in theory, signed for less than veterans would have.

Players such as Logan Couture suggested the same, but Sharks GM Doug Wilson wasn’t ready to endorse the economic motivation.

“I can’t speak for other teams,” he said. “For me, it’s purely talent. If a player can play, he’s going to play.”

Besides, he added, “there’s veteran guys you can get for the same money.”

Space issues prevented that from being in the story, but, hey, we all know that’s where the blog comes in handy.

****The story also gets into the fact Tomas Hertl will be moving out of his downtown hotel room and into the guest room with a family in Monte Sereno, the same family that has housed three other Sharks – Brad Stuart, Milan Michalek and Marc-Edouard Vlasic, when they were teen-agers in the NHL. It’s an attempt to replicate the billet experience in junior hockey.

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Todd McLellan’s brings a father’s perspective as well as a coach’s to that situation as his 17-year-old son Tyson is playing for the Waterloo Black Hawks of the USHL. The coach and I talked about that, and a snippet of what he had to say about teens in the NHL and the benefit of billet housing shows up in the story. Here’s the rest.

“It’s remarkable how these kids can adapt to the league, the speed, the strength, the power, the tactics. These players that are playing as teen-agers in the league are exceptional,” McLellan said. “I was watching the Dallas game yesterday and Nichushkin was playing. I pointed out to my wife, ‘He’s 18, he’s a year older than Tyson is. And he’s 6-foot-4 and he’s skating and scoring goals.’ It really is remarkable where they come from and how they can fit in.”

And does he sees Hertl’s move into a family’s spare bedroom as important?

“I think it’s a great thing,” McLellan said. “What you don’t want to do as an organization is just hand the keys to the kingdom to the player. He had to work hard and prove that he belonged here, not just for one or two games, but for a long road trip. And he has done that to this point.

“Now it’s our job to help him as much as we can. We think living with a family and eating properly and learning English there and having a home environment created for him is real important.”

As he gets more accustomed to things – “life in San Jose, the language, a vehicle” then Hertl “will be able to broaden himself. But we want to do anything we can to help him.”

That being said, McLellan added, “he’s got to live up to his end of the bargain to keep playing at a high level and we’ll keep helping him as well.”

****James Sheppard is another Shark who arrived in the NHL before turning 20. He, like Marc-Edouard Vlasic, said the way the game is played today makes it easier for a young guy to break into the NHL.

“I’d say it was a much different game now. It’s a lot faster,” said Sheppard, who was the first round pick of the Minnesota Wild in 2006 and arrived in the NHL straight from Cape Breton of the Q. “It was difficult for me for sure, the speed. I was big, but it was more like the stick work was so fast and quick it would take me a second longer. Just the transition was difficult for me.”

Sheppard said he lived with the family of an ex-player, Darby Hendrickson. Sheppard was in billets during junior hockey, he said, but this was different, he said,
“I was in billets before, but all the guys on my team were in billets as well,” Sheppard said. “I just didn’t like that I was the only one doing it.”

Life in the NHL was pretty good for a teen-ager, maybe with one exception.

“It wasn’t bad because it was pretty structured. Always had to be on the bus by this time and this and this and this,” Sheppard said. “Being in a suit all the time was different, too. When I was in Minny, we had to be in a suit all the time on the road. I was only 19. I wasn’t used to that.

“The biggest thing,” he added, “was getting on a jet and eating in nice restaurants. I was used to eating in pizza places.”

****Finally, the Sharks do play a hockey game Tuesday night and Todd McLellan was giving the Sabres more respect than their 2-13-1 record would seem to warrant. But that was his point when asked if there was a challenge get his players focused on the next opponent.

“I’d like to think not,” McLellan said. “Their record’s going to change when they leave here and it’s either going to get better or worse. And it’s our job to make sure we take care of our record.

“They are a much more effective team than their record shows. They’ve been close in a lot of games,” he continued. “They’ve sorted some things out and their new coach now has had time to put some things in place. The games we watched, they’re a pretty damn good hockey club and if we think any different, their record will improve tomorrow.”

No word from McLellan on whether Matt Irwin would be back in the lineup after being a healthy scratch.

McLellan wouldn’t go into the decision-making process that kept Irwin out of the Phoenix game as Dan Boyle returned, but Irwin himself talked about the experience.

“Obviously you want to play every game, right?,” he said. As for the benching, “you take it in stride, you keep working every practice. It was a good opportunity for me to watch a game from upstairs. You can learn a lot up there that way, understand how much more time you actually have than when you’re down on the ice. As a positive, that was good.”

David Pollak

David Pollak has been following the NHL forever and at the Mercury News as an editor or reporter since 1987. For almost a decade he wrote about the Sharks as the paper's Fan in the Stands before joining the sports department in 2001. He became the Sharks beat writer before the 2007-08 season and began this blog at that time. You can also follow him on Twitter at @PollakOnSharks.

Let me bestow some serious hockey knowledge on everyone here: The Sharks have not won the Stanley Cup because they have not been good enough to win enough rounds in the playoffs to make it to the Stanley Cup, and then win the Cup series.
Now THAT is some DEEP knowledge!!!! Yo!
Here’s some more serious analysis: The Sharks haven’t won The Cup yet because their team personnel, combined with injuries, and a clear lack of HEART, has prevented them from going all the way. Yo!
That’s right Dawg! My knowledge is deep! Like the Marianas Trench!!! Head for the penalty box, bro!
I know you all fear me…but no need, I don’t roll like that. It’s cool. You can comment and I won’t shut you down for your weak-ass knowledge. Haters be hatin’ but I just be skatin’…yo!

G-bum-man

Actually, to be serious for a sec. I wonder if the red line was still in play–no two line passes–do you think all the teenagers playing in the NHL would be as effective as they are now?
I bet they would be. Seems like the skill level just keeps evolving–just like in all other sports.

MLBSF

****Finally, the Sharks do play a hockey game Tuesday night and Todd
McLellan was giving the Sabres more respect than their 2-13-1 record
would seem to warrant.
——–

Um, the article leaves out the most important information as to why McLellan naturally is giving the Sabres respect irregardless of their record.

And why would that be MLBSF? It would be because the Sharks can’t beat Buffalo. Maybe someone can tell me the last time the Sharks beat Buffalo.

As far as I know, the Sharks have possibly never beaten Buffalo. But what I do know is they haven’t beaten Buffalo in San Jose, or in New York in recent memory.

So yea, considering how bad the Sharks are playing right now, this is a terrible time to be facing this team. Maybe not having Shark-killer Lindy Ruff coaching will be a break for us. We will see.

Jim

They’ve picked up a handful of wins against Buffalo over the years, almost all at home. The first Sharks game I ever went to was actually a 7-5 win over Buffalo at the Cow Palace in 1992. But you’re right that they’re fairly infrequent – the last time they beat the Sabres was in the 09/10 season (during the era of the Buffaslug jersey), and the only team the Sharks have a worse winning percentage against historically than Buffalo are the Rangers. Of course, we all saw how New York’s visit to the Bay Area this season went.

LTNC

A cache of what?
I’d swear the word is cachet.
But I hate when people nit pick.

WI JP

Interesting that the young McLellan plays in Waterloo, as did Pavs, and an assistant W. coach is Scott Pavelski, Pavs brother.

GP_hockeyhappens

Talk about “god-awful”…how about your “god-awful” skill at looking up the records. The truth is, you won’t look anything up because it will break your wind passing through your ears and will stink like breaking wind does. As well, you’ll actually learn something which defeats your shtick.

You might wonder why every one of your posts gets down votes. Read your last paragraph. It’s clueless, dishonest rants like that, that is offending everyone and their intelligence. Hence, a down vote. It also is proof of one of two things: you really are hockey clueless or living up to your trolling reputation.

GP_hockeyhappens

I am hoping for cash myself..

Ooops…sorry. Wrong conversation.

MLBSF

Oh well. Hatas gunna hate.

mn_test347

Oh, it’s got cachet baby! It’s got cachet up the yin-yang!

s/George Costanza

mn_test347

12-13 did not play

11-12 L1

10-11 L2

09-10 W1 L1

08-09 OT1

07-08 L1

06-07 did not play

05-06 W1

03-04 L1
02-03 Tie1

MLBSF

They’ve lost 7 out of 9 dating back to the 2003-04 season? Yup, god-awful alright!

GP_hockeyhappens

“As far as I know, the Sharks have possibly never beaten Buffalo. But
what I do know is they haven’t beaten Buffalo in San Jose, or in New
York in recent memory.”

You make my point — “god-awful” skill at looking up the records.”

Explains how FAR you know…

GP_hockeyhappens

sigh…

You’re gonna shtick with that? You think “hate” is somehow involved?

Buddy Elf

He’s a chump… just ignore him.

G-bum-man

Interesting indeed. Hockey is such a small world- as the skill level ramps up. Looks like Pavs has some leverage with Tmac, since his brother Scott has Lil’ Mclellan’s life in his hands. Not that Pavs would get Machiavellian on his own coach or anything….he seems to be doing pretty darn well on the 3rd line. Insurance is always good to have though!